Anti-fouling agent for improving seawater desalination efficiency

"The war in the 20th century was a battle for oil, and in the 21st century it was a battle for water." This was predicted by Mr. Ismael Serageldin, who had been the Vice President of the World Bank for many years.
With the dramatic increase in the world's population, drinking water is becoming a scarce resource. According to the analysis of the World Population German Foundation, the shortage of water resources has plagued the lives of 510 million people. It is expected that water shortages will affect 42% of the world's population after 50 years. This century, water will become a competing resource. Cities along the Yellow River in North China are also facing the same difficulties, especially in the long-term severe heat shortage. The emergence of desalination plants is gradually solving the problem of human water shortage. In seawater desalination plants, seawater is heated and then the drinking water is extracted from the steam. However, this method produces a large amount of sediment that is difficult to remove, causing the equipment to squat quickly. The world-famous chemical company—BASF developed anti-scaling agent can control the production of sediments, increase the desalination efficiency and prolong the service life of equipment.
According to the person in charge of the BASF Specialty Polymers Division, this anti-scaling agent prolongs the sediment removal cycle from two to three months to one and a half years. Even if scaling occurs, it is only thin and soft. It can be removed during the period. In addition to using the above method to obtain drinking water from seawater, it is also possible to use a partially water-permeable membrane to desalinate seawater, but this reverse osmosis technology also faces similar problems. BASF researchers found that scale inhibitors consist of long-chain polymers that enclose tiny nuclei to prevent crystals from clinging to or falling onto the surface. The successful development of this scale inhibitor has contributed to the desalination of seawater and will improve the supply of drinking water in the future.